Bird strike

A bird strike is a collision between an aircraft and wildlife, usually birds. In 2024 the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) counted 22,372 wildlife strikes on civil aircraft in the United States, about sixty a day. That was up 14% on 2023, while traffic grew only a few points. The agency puts it down to growing bird populations and quieter engines that birds hear less. Most strikes leave nothing more than a mark on a radome. The cost sits in the engine: a goose through a fan means replacement blades, a shop visit and a lease engine for weeks. For the hull underwriter it is the archetypal frequency claim. The damage is sudden and accidental, so it falls under the all-risks policy, unlike wear and tear, which is excluded. The adjusters fight over the boundary: the market's surveyor separates what the ingestion broke from what deterioration had already set up, and the shop invoice is split accordingly. Much of this sits below the hull deductible, which feeds the deductible insurance market and hits the airline's profit and loss account (P&L) harder than the insurer's. Severity comes from dual ingestion. Engines are certified to swallow birds of a defined size, and a Canada goose exceeds it. On January 15, 2009, US Airways 1549 lost both engines and ended in the Hudson. On December 29, 2024, Jeju Air 2216 landed gear-up at Muan. On the liability side, airports must manage wildlife on their grounds, but recovery against them rarely succeeds: the bird is treated as a hazard of flight.